Machmer Hall has its strongest chance yet at finding success as a breeder in the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) with a filly that hails from a female family the Bourbon County farm has believed in for generations.
Owned and operated by Carrie and Craig Brogden, Machmer Hall bred Gazelle Stakes (G3) winner Search Results, a daughter of Flatter that is the 3-1, co-second-choice in the Oaks morning line. The filly is raced by Klaravich Stables and trained by Chad Brown, which is also the team behind Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G2) runner-up Highly Motivated in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1).
The Brogdens started down the path toward this year's Oaks with a Yonaguska mare named Yong Musician, whom they sold to a South American breeder the year she produced a Candy Ride filly named Co Cola. The foal was bred by a mare partnership run by the Brogdens.
"She was beautiful," Carrie Brogden recalled of Co Cola as a weanling. "And her mother was gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous."
Despite her glowing physical attributes, Co Cola sold as a weanling for $75,000 at the 2011 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. Brogden said the filly might have sold better, but it was before videos of endoscopic throat exams were available in auction house repositories.
"She was scoped a bunch of times at the sale. The first few scopes she passed fine, then—and this is a big reason we went to video scopes—by the fifth, sixth, seventh time, her throat was getting inflamed and she started to fail the scopes."
Circumstances would continue preventing Co Cola from realizing her highest potential as a sale horse. She was offered in 2012 at The Saratoga Sale, Fasig-Tipton's select yearling sale in New York, where a paddock injury suffered prior to the sale led to her being bought back on a final bid of $90,000. She next went through the Fasig-Tipton October Yearling Sale where Becky Thomas and Jim Thompson bought her for $59,000 out of Hidden Brook's consignment for Spruce Lane Farm. Thomas entered Co Cola in the 2013 Ocala Breeders' Sales June 2-Year-Old and Horses of Racing Age sale and again the filly was bought back, this time on a final bid of $72,000.
Co Cola wound up with owner Dr. Jerry Bortolazzo and began proving the potential Brogden believed she possessed. She broke her maiden by 4 1/2 lengths in October of her 2-year-old season with trainer Todd Pletcher. She became stakes-placed in her second start and kicked off her sophomore campaign by finishing second in the Old Hat Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream Park.
With Co Cola looking like she might become a serious racehorse, Machmer Hall repurchased Yong Musician and brought her back to the States. The farm would breed two more foals out of her, including the winning American Pharoah filly American Legend.
Co Cola would not become a stakes winner. After finishing second in a minor stakes at Calder Race Course, Carrie Brogden got a call from the filly's co-owner Chris Brothers asking if she might be interested in Co Cola as a broodmare prospect. They made a deal at $100,000.
"She was a good racehorse, but the only reason she was affordable was because she didn't win a graded stakes; otherwise she would have been out of our budget," Brogden said.
Machmer Hall first bred Co Cola to then-first year sire and U.S. champion 3-year-old male Will Take Charge and put her through the Keeneland November sale, but she did not meet her reserve on a final bid of $190,000.
"After that we sold Yong Musician to the owner of Protonico (Oussama Aboughazale's International Equities Holdings) and decided to make Co Cola a long-term mare," Brogden said. The mare produced a winning colt (later gelded) by Will Take Charge named Blue Steel and a then a filly by Hard Spun named Champipple.
For her third mating, Brogden went to a sire she has long admired and had already delivered substantial success at sales—Claiborne Farm's Flatter.
"Co Cola is a big stretchy Candy Ride, but I also know he can throw smaller and more refined. He throws pretty," Brodgen said. "Flatter is a hulky, big-boned, heavy horse. To me all the negative traits that run in Candy Ride are positive in Flatter and vice versa. We have done really well with Flatter. We pinhooked Flat Out on our farm and he was one of the first Flatters I dealt with. He was so smart. Flatter is a course stallion that needs a refined mare to gussy him up." Flat Out went on to win three grade 1s.
The mating with Co Cola produced Search Results, whom Brogden described as a "strong, colt-like filly" when she was a yearling. The filly was a standout on the second day of Book 3 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale where she topped the session at $310,000. Bloodstock agent Mike Ryan picked out the filly and signed the ticket on Klaravich Stables' behalf.
Search Results immediately showed she's inherited the best from her sire and dam, particularly the heart and determination so often seen in the descendants of Flatter and Candy Ride. She debuted at 3 in a six-furlong maiden special weight at Gulfstream Park where she broke awkwardly and left jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. needing to use her early to make up lost ground. Tracking along the rail, she got blocked as the field rounded the turn, forcing Ortiz to take her wide going into the stretch. Search Results closed the gap with the leaders but wasn't changing leads. Finally with a sixteenth of a mile to go she switched to her right lead and drew away to win by four lengths.
Lead changes would continue to be an issue for Search Results but she possesses the talent and will to fight through the fatigue. Without switching leads, she powered through to win the March 6 Busher Invitational Stakes by half-a-length and then won the April 3 Gazelle Stakes (G3) by 2 3/4 lengths on her left lead in 1:54.14, faster than the 1:54.49 final time of the Wood Memorial Stakes Presented by Resorts World Casino (G2) that day.
"When she won first time out, the amount of stuff she had to overcome was astonishing, and she is doing it all on the left lead," said Brogden. "I was glad to see she changed leads in her last work, but if she had run faster than the Wood was run on her left lead, then it will be really fun to watch her when she is on her right."
Machmer Hall has bred other Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks starters, including Vyjack in the 2013 Derby and both Vinceremos and Intense Holiday in the 2014 Derby. In last year's Oaks, the farm was represented by Bayerness, who finished sixth.
"We've never hit the board, but you have to go in with no expectations," Brogden said. "You know the horses are good, but when they show how good I'm always surprised because it is so hard. We're just thankful to have a horse in the race. I mean, Stonestreet has three fillies it's bred in the Oaks. We feel lucky to be here among the elite breeders and to have a filly of this caliber in the race."
Co Cola sells for $625,000 at the OBS Spring Sale
As for Co Cola, the mare foaled a long-legged bay colt by Nyquist this year and was bred back to Flatter. She has a 2-year-old by Flatter that de Meric Sales sold for $625,000 at the recent OBS Spring 2-Year-olds in Training Sale. Agent Lauren Carlisle signed the ticket for the colt on behalf of the microshare partnership venture MyRacehorse.com.
"My partner in Select Sales, Jay Goodwin, owns Search Results' half sister (Champipple), and I've suggested he breed her to Flatter," Brogden said. "The female family can be a lighter type, lighter boned, and Flatter is going to give anything size, substance, bone, and heart. With speed from Candy Ride, I just think it is a win-win."
